sponsors

The Classic Outback Trial is pleased to announce that our official accommodation partners, Crowne Plaza Alice Springs Lasseters have come on board as naming rights sponsor with the event to be known as the Lasseters Classic Outback Trial 2018. Continue reading →

The 2016 Classic Outback Trial will be based at fabulous Lasseters Hotel Casino in Alice Springs.

Lasseters will really be COT headquarters, with the resort providing a Rally HQ office, secure overnight parking, an area for end of day servicing, the briefing and presentation function. With the exception of the start of day1, all days will start and finish at Laseters. The resort is 4.5 star rated and boasts 4 restaurants, 4 bars, a sports lounge, nightclub, poolside café and a casino and will be a welcome contrast to the unique and rugged Australian outback that crews will tackle during the 6 days of competition.

The establishment takes its name from Lewis HubertLasseter. He was an explorer who was made famous by his sensational claim in 1929, that he had discovered a fabulously rich gold reef, now known as “Lasseter‘s Reef”, in central Australia. The reef has never been discovered and Lasseter himself died in the West Australian desert in early 1931 after he separated himself from an expedition that was mounted to try and find the supposed reef. Lasseter is buried in the Alice Springs cemetery.

The Classic Outback Trial team is thrilled to be part of the Sydney to London Classic Marathon and we’re really looking forward to showing SLM crews some of our COT stages in the first four days of this great event. We’re also thrilled that Frontier Services are part of the SLM and we’re supporting their SLM fundraising activities.

This site lets you donate direct to Frontier Services or by “sponsoring” a team on the SLM. There are already a few teams set up, including the SLM redshirts, the Hartman Hot Wheels team and now, the COT team. We’re not really that competitive of course, but these teams are looking to raise the most for Frontier Services so we can win the coveted “Frontier Services Charity Cup”.

This is really important fund raising – Frontier Services do essential work with the people who live remote parts of Australia and need our support to keep this work going. And, both the Sydney to London and the Classic Outback Trial benefit from our Frontier Services partnership – we get to rally in an absolutely sensational part of Australia. So – we need to support our partners.

Go to the website and make a donation – either direct to Frontier Services or through a team by “sponsoring” that team. And share your donation to your social media friends – get them to reach into their pockets too! Donations are tax deductible and all funds go direct to Frontier Services.

We’re appealing to all of our COT officials to make a donation by “sponsoring” the COT team – lets show how #cotofficialsmakeithappen!

And we’d like to encourage other SLM teams to register and have a crack at the Frontier Services Charity Cup… (Whatever that is… did Gary Williamson make it up? 😎 )

Frontier Services is a great organisation, full of wonderful people that do essential and valuable work. Let’s get behind them – donate now!

Nissan Australia will again partner major national inland pastoral and healthcare provider Frontier Services and the 2014 Classic Outback Trial, connecting people in urban areas with those in need of assistance in remote parts of Australia.

Nissan will provide a range of four-wheel drive vehicles for essential surveys, medical intervention and the operation of the Trial, which will be staged from August 31 to September 6 in remote areas of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

It is the third time that Nissan has supplied essential vehicles to the event since its first running in 2009, while Frontier Services celebrated its Centenary last year as part of its similarly long association.

Frontier Services is the Uniting Church’s successor to the Australian Inland Mission developed in 1912 by Rev Dr John ‘Flynn of the Outback’.

It has a significant and long-standing association with Nissan, employing a fleet of 144 Tiida, Dualis, X-Trail, Pathfinder and Patrol vehicles to carry out its work throughout Australia.

The organisation’s National Development Director, Grahame Ryan, said the core purpose of the Trial for Frontier Services was to promote Frontier Services’ ‘Outback Links’ programme, which aims to form a connection between people in urban areas and those in need of assistance in remote parts of Australia.

“The Association with both the Classic Outback Trial and Nissan has always been a natural fit for us,” he said.

“The event crosses the landscape we cover annually; it deals with the people we encounter weekly; and it relies upon the goodwill of the communities that we provide help to on a daily basis.

“It also offers Frontier Services a wonderful national platform from which to promote itself across the very regions and communities that we service throughout the width and breadth of the great Australian outback.”

Grahame Ryan said Nissan’s support of its fleet of both on-road and off-road vehicles was also invaluable.

“It forms an essential component of Frontier Services being able to effectively deliver its promise to the people and communities of regional and remote Australia,” he said.

The 2014 Classic Outback Trial will see a field of around 50 Historic and Production Rally Cars built prior to 1996 compete over 35 ‘special stages’ on private and limited access roads and tracks in remote areas of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

The Trial’s organiser, Philip Bernadou, said the 2,000km event distance will be 40 per cent competitive, with 35 special stages varying in length from 10 to 90km. One of the most demanding stages will be one stretching 60km on a 62,500Ha property south of Broken Hill that will include flat scrub, sand dunes, rocky outcrops and herds and flocks of natural fauna.

He said the Nissan vehicles will first be employed in the event’s initial course survey from late March, while other Nissan vehicles will gradually be engaged in course checking and in the operation of the event itself.